Backing track questions

[Trotter]

I've been wanting to play music again, but haven't been able to find other musicians. So I guess I'm going to try to do a solo thing using backing tracks.

So to those of you that use backing tracks I have several questions.

Does it matter what file type you burn to a CD? Any loss of quality using mp3s instead of wavs?

Have you had trouble with backing tracks that are slightly out of tune? If so how did you tune the tracks up?

Any special equipment or software that is useful for editing/playing backing tracks?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[Oancient1]

Hi Dave,

I don't use audio backing tracks, but regarding the MP3/wav question, it depends on exactly what you are doing. If you have a wav file, then burning that to Audio CD will provide better quality than converting it to MP3 and then copying it to CD and playing it on a CD player that support playing MP3s. But if you are starting with an MP3, then converting it to wav before burning it to Audio CD would not improve the quality. (Any quality loss associated with MP3s happens when the MP3 is made.)

Tom

 

[Trotter]

Hi Tom,

I've been using some tracks from karaoke CDs and downloading mp3s from the different sites. So I guess I could convert all of my mp3s to wavs and not loose any quality and have all of my songs in the same file type. I've discovered that a lot of the tracks have been slightly out of tune, maybe 10-20 cents flat or sharp. Audacity seems to work okay for correcting pitch.

Thanks